Saturday, February 12, 2011

Our Town

Clean streets, clean shoes
Clean vats
Clean drains
Dirty beds
Stained stairs
Open windows
Panes broken
Fans in labour
In empty rooms
Lights dim
In classrooms


Clean river
Dirty banks


Clean sleeves
Dirty hands


A child laughs
In joy having
Stoned a dog;
A dog cries
Losing its leg
To its father’s
Wheels.


The Spaniel
Laughs, at the
Window.


Despair not,
Man,
You’re clean,
I’m clean,
We’re fine.

Monday, February 7, 2011

NOT A CYCLE WAS LEFT


Everyone and everything is gone,
I lie alone under my blanket--
Shying away from the world
Of suffering, of giggles,
Of disease.
Not a cycle is left
To take me to you.

Outside I hear people singing;
Some having fun:
Inside, my mind is drowned
In my panting and sneezes.
I suffer alone,
And calls me none;
Nor can I see you.
Oh, alas, not a cycle is left
To take me to you.

Life seems a burden
At times, when I
Can’t see your smiling face.
Oh, when shall the day
Come again,
That I shall peep
Through the gap beside my door
And see you smile
Miles away,
Asking me to come,
Meet you?
But no hope today!
Not a cycle is left
To take me to take to you.

I hear bells ringing just outside--
Rings that toll my death
Perhaps you shall come
You shall come and smile
You shall come and smile and call me
You shall come and smile and call me and find me dead.
You shall find me dead.
My body still can’t reach you,
For, not a cycle is left
To take me to you.

In my last dream
I cycle
I cycle hard
I see you at a turn
Smiling with your friends;
A lorry comes hurtling by
And smiles me to death.

Thank God,
Not a cycle is left
To take me to you.